Philadelphia police pledged to release 911 tapes and police body camera footage “in the near future” in the shooting death of a black man with a history of mental health problems, a death that sparked protests. , widespread vandalism and an overnight curfew days before Election Day. .
Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw has promised to release the video evidence once the department shares it with the family of Walter Wallace Jr. Outlaw, who arrived in Philadelphia less than a year ago from Portland, Oregon, lamented at a conference of Press Wednesday that his department lacks a mental health unit or a consistent way to coordinate police calls with specialists.
“We don’t have a behavioral health unit, which is very much needed,” Outlaw said, when asked about reports that police had been called to the home twice earlier that day. “Clearly there is a disconnect on our part in terms of knowing what’s out there” at the scene.
Police say Wallace was fatally shot Monday after he ignored orders to drop a knife, a death that intensified already high tensions in the presidential battlefield state. Wallace’s mother said she warned police Monday afternoon that her son was going through a mental health crisis.
In the days since, more than 90 people have been arrested and around 50 police officers have been injured in clashes with protesters and vandals, including the roughly 1,000 who suddenly invaded a mall Tuesday night, breaking windows and stealing merchandise. That scene broke out on the other side of town, miles from the Wallace neighborhood, where protests were taking place.
“We didn’t have any information to warn us of this,” said Deputy Commissioner Melvin Singleton. “At that time … the damage was done.”
The clashes come as Pennsylvania emerges as a key focus of the controversial 2020 election, with President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, a native son, locked in a battle for the state’s 20 electoral votes. Both candidates have made frequent campaign stops in the state.
More than 9 million Pennsylvanians have registered to vote, and many in Philadelphia waited in line for hours this week to request a mail-in ballot before Tuesday’s deadline when news of the police shooting broke.
City officials announced Wednesday that they would enact a city curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., while business owners cleaned up damage caused by the riot and bricked up windows.
Mayor Jim Kenney told reporters that the Pennsylvania National Guard would also be deployed to help protect property and assist law enforcement. The first troops were expected on Friday and Saturday.
The riots began Monday night, shortly after the death of 27-year-old Wallace, and sparked protests elsewhere, including Washington, DC, the Brooklyn borough of New York City, and Portland, where protesters took his hands in the shape of a “W” in his honor.
His family’s attorney said the family had called an ambulance to help him with a mental health crisis.
Wallace’s wife, Dominique, is pregnant and was scheduled to be induced Wednesday, according to the family’s attorney, Shaka Johnson. Johnson said Wallace had nine children, two of whom spoke briefly at a news conference Tuesday night, along with Wallace’s mother and father.
“When you come to a scene where someone is in a mental breakdown and the only tool you have to deal with is a gun … where are the right tools for the job?” Johnson said, arguing that Philadelphia police officers are not properly trained to handle mental health crises.
Police officers said they could not confirm what information the responding officers had been given, whether they were informed of possible mental illness or how many calls they had received asking for help at Wallace’s address on Monday.
Outlaw previously said that officers involved in the shooting were removed from duty on the street while they investigated. She said the officers’ names and other identifying information, including their race, would be withheld until the department could be sure that releasing the information would not pose a threat to their safety.
Neither man had a taser or similar device at the time of the shooting, Outlaw said, noting that the department had requested funds to equip more officers with those devices.
The two officers each fired at least seven rounds, at least 14 shots in total, but police could not say how many times Wallace was hit.
Wallace’s father, Walter Wallace Sr., said Tuesday night that he is haunted by the way his son was “massacred.”
“It’s in my mind. I can’t even sleep at night. I can’t even close my eyes, ”he said.
In a video shot by a passerby and posted on social media, officers could be seen yelling at Wallace to drop a knife. In the video, Wallace’s mother and at least one man followed Wallace, trying to get him to hear the officers, as he quickly walked down the street and between cars.
Wallace advanced on the officers, who then fired multiple shots, police spokeswoman Tanya Little said. Wallace’s mother could be seen yelling and throwing something at an officer after her son was shot and fell to the ground.
The video doesn’t make it clear if he was actually holding a knife, but witnesses said he was.
Wallace was hit in the shoulder and chest, Little said. An officer took him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead shortly after, he said.
Attorney Robert Trimble represented Wallace in a robbery case in 2016 that led to him spending approximately a year in jail. His sentence, according to court records, included mental health supervision and six years of probation. He had a new charge pending at the time of his death.
“I met him about a year ago at City Hall. He stopped me on the street and thanked me for helping him, ”Trimble said. “I remember he was a decent guy.”
Both Outlaw and the Mayor pledged to address the lack of coordinated mental health services.
“We have limited resources and we have a lot of people with problems,” Kenney said. “We need to do a better job.”
___ Associated Press writer Claudia Lauer contributed to this report from Philadelphia.
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